Awful British weather ruinng plants …

Hi,

Anyone’s else’s british garden ( especially northerners) being wrecked by the gloomy , cold , wet windy weather ? It’s now mid April and there’s been hardly any sun . Storm wrecked some of the garden.. The tulips are not bursting into bloom and the crocus struggled too when they appeared . SO fed up of British weather . Can’t even remember what a blue sky looks like . Also, it’s forecasted to be cold and wet rest of April . PS on a good note the forget me nots seem to love the wet weather !!

 

It's not that different from our normal late winter/early spring here. The only real difference is that it's been very mild, so we've had slightly more rain, rather than snow and frost/ice, especially through Feb/March.

 

I feel your pain. I come on here and look at the ‘what’s looking good in April’ section, and am amazed at how lovely things are looking in other places in the UK. I just presume the flowers are all in France, Spain or Portugal - but nope. Spring has not arrived with me.

 

Hi, what's it like in Sweden now? Can you live there? I could not cope with British weather now and I was Bucks and the IoW.

 

Problem with spring is you can have sunny days and frosty nights or cloud and rain but mild nights.
Not a fan of storms and strong winds but equally I hate spring frosts.

 

The weather isn't just ruining plants in the garden it's ruining businesses too. People just aren't visiting Garden Centres and nurseries in the numbers which would normally be expected.

 

Including farmers, the government only this month suspended tariffs on over another 100+ goods, including food and drinks which aren't produced in sufficient enough quantities in the UK.

We reckon our bedding plants will be available to sell to the public from late next week, probably the weekend of the 27th April, a good 2 weeks later than they tend to be in available to G/C's.

 

Strong winds, like heat waves, droughts and floods, will keep increasing in prevalence and strength. Not every place on earth will get the same things, although I'd expect strong winds to be given out fairly even-handedly. It's the result of adding so much energy - the earth energy imbalance is mind-boggling.

 

You often don't see the damage until much later. Touch wood, the vast majority of my newly planted things have survived (though I did choose AGM varieties when possible) and I put in a lot of organic matter. I think tough things like mahonia and roses can deal with both flooding and drought, though blackspot may be an issue.

The allotment is a different matter altogether, our mini greenhouse blew down twice in a week, and the ground is so saturated we haven't been able to plant much directly at all. I tried to put green manure down to reduce erosion from winter rains but I think I did it too late (October) so had bare ground with all the seeds washed away.

My prediction is we are going to have a very long mosquito and biting midge season, in the south we aren't used to that really but all the saturated ground will vastly increase the number of breeding sites, an annoyance to us but a disaster for livestock since they carry things like bluetongue. So stock up on that insect repellent!

 

UK farmers aren't producing enough even in good years yet the Government is paying them to stop producing food and plant trees instead. Tree planting is a good idea, but not in highly productive land.

 

I know! It’s so frustrating

 

Oh I’m in York now lol and it’s like November

 

Was just feeling miserable with it all and sick of seeing grey and ruined plants . So needed a emotional rant I think lol oh well, guess I best embrace it as there’s yet another storm with freezing rain in York as I type . Just gotta enjoy those Forget Me Nots I guess . thanks

 

Wasn't doing too bad up till now, but yesterday we had horrible wind and rain and it's flattened lots of my daffs. Still it's a good excuse to cut them and bring them in. I cut a single bloom of my "Ascot" variety a couple of days ago and it's been scenting the whole floor it's on. It's a light and subtle but immediately noticeable perfume.